Hi folks,
The Progressive recently reported an incident in the Quad Cities in which the police collected the little flags of protesters. If only the Police were whistling Sousa's Liberty Bell March while in Drag.
http://progressive.org/...
Cathy Berta is a retired elementary schoolteacher. At 66, she's also a member of Progressive Action for the Common Good of the Quad Cities.
When she heard that Vice President Cheney was coming to Davenport, Iowa, on July 17, she decided to heed the group's protest call.
...
Berta was carrying a sign that said: "No, You Can't Have My Rights, I'm Still Using Them."
And she was also holding a little American flag on a stick.
But the police wouldn't let her, or anyone else, carry the flags.
"I'm going to have to take your stick," one officer told her, she says.
Anyways, I am waiting for the police to start confiscating fresh fruit.
When I was a child, one of my favorite Monty Python skits was called "Self Defense" in which young recruit try to get their self defense instructor to teach them useful skills in case an assailent attacks them with something dangerous like .... sharp pointed sticks. Never in my life did I think that life would outdo the Pythons until this administration took office.
http://orangecow.org/...
Sergeant: Huh! 'Flu, eh? They should eat more fresh fruit. Ha. Right. Now, self-defence. Tonight I shall be carrying on from where we got to last week when I was showing you how to defend yourselves against anyone who attacks you with armed with a piece of fresh fruit.
(Grumbles from all)
2nd Man: Oh, you promised you wouldn't do fruit this week.
Sergeant: What do you mean?
3rd Man: We've done fruit the last nine weeks.
Sergeant: What's wrong with fruit? You think you know it all, eh?
2nd Man: Can't we do something else?
3rd Man: Like someone who attacks you with a pointed stick?
Sergeant: Pointed stick? Oh, oh, oh. We want to learn how to defend ourselves against pointed sticks, do we? Getting all high and mighty, eh? Fresh fruit not good enough for you eh? Well I'll tell you something my lad. When you're walking home tonight and some great homicidal maniac comes after you with a bunch of loganberries, don't come crying to me! Now, the passion fruit. When your assailant lunges at you with a passion fruit...
So we have moved so far down the slippery slope that now the 6 inch, blunt ended, little dowels that support a flag are considered a threat. What's next, Loganberries? Passionfruit?
In some sense, I don't know what is more pathetic, that the police were ordered by Cheney's people to confiscate the "dangerous 6 inch blunt dowels" or that they did it. Do you think that the police officers would re-enact the "Fish Slapping Dance" if asked by the Vice President? Or maybe they would march alongside the VP's car in homage to John Cleese's silly walk? Where has their self respect gone?
The Bush Administration, think of it as inspired by the worst parts of Monty Python and Black Adder.
Charles